In a recent survey, 70 percent of respondents identified their family pet as "a member of the family." Even as these animals are revered by human beings as loved ones, the meat, fish, and dairy industries continue to thrive on the killing of other, less beloved creatures. A prizewinning playwright as well as a columnist and the author of The Hidden Life of Humans and The Great Big Book of Guys, Erika Ritter speaks to this disparity, using interviews with philosophers, scientists, farmers, and poets to explore our complicated and often self-contradictory relationship to the animal world.